Section D

Introduction:
The Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna programme was initiated in 2002 as a

rural health and hygiene initiative in India. Swasthya Chetna, basically means 'Health Awakening. The main message of the campaign is "Visibly clean is not really clean". The Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna programme is designed to spread awareness about the importance of washing hands with soap. It also promotes general hygiene in rural areas that are difficult to reach through usual marketing campaigns such as television, press or instore advertising and promotions. Covering 130 million people in 30,000 villages since 2002, the Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna programme has made its mark as the single largest private hygiene education project in the world. The Swasthya Chetna programme will be re-launched in 2009, and will cover even more villages in India as part of the Lifebuoy brand's crusade.

Communication:
The campaign has three communication tasks: To establish the presence of germs, even on clean hands, through the use of a 'glow germ demo kit' that has been developed by Unilever for use in Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna. To establish the consequences of these hidden germs, which when ingested, can cause stomach infections and diarrhoea, or be transferred to eyes causing painful eye infections, or infecting wounds. To establish how current practice is not enough to fight these germs by using the glow germ demo kit to demonstrate that washing with water is not enough, and that it is necessary to wash hands with soap for germ protection.

Tools used to communicate the message:

Lifebuoy teams visit each village several times, engaging all

segments of the community and ensuring the formation of local 'self-help communities' that can sustain the message. School children, being initiators of change, make excellent ambassadors of communication, provided they find it fun and engaging. These visits also include a meeting with the Panchayat (village elders) and forming Health Clubs. The program started with a Health Development

Facilitator (HDF) and an assistant initiating contact and interacting with schoolchildren

 The program also used media vehicles like cinema vans,

wall paintings, weekly markets, fairs and festivals. The messages on health and hygiene were reinforced through regular contact programs. HLL also introduced a smaller bar (18 gram) of Lifebuoy soap priced at two rupees, to encourage people with low incomes to use soap. Children and parents were recruited as volunteers to start health clubs that would help sustain the initiative.

 To help people on low incomes afford to buy soap, 18-

gram bar of Lifebuoy soap was introduced, enough for one person to wash their hands once a day for 10 weeks. Health care in Rural India is given importance due to its direct impact on labor productivity, and in turn, loss of income. Also, for decades, Lifebuoy has been synonymous with soap in rural India. All these factors led to Swasthya Chetna! Lifebuoy also supports the Global Hand washing day on October 15, 2008

The Challenge in rural India

1. Lack of awareness about disease causing germs 2. Need for repeated contacts to drive behavior change 3. Lack of media reach

Key factors to success of the program:

Continuous monitoring and evaluation is at the core of the

program each year, program activities are evaluated on both awareness of hygiene moments and effective behavior changes. Improvements can be made to the subsequent years program to make it more effective in achieving its goals. Cost-effectiveness of the program. Commitment of the operating company Swasthya Chetna is now central to what the brand does in India, and the operating company (Hindustan Unilever Limited) has invested more than US$5 million.

Impact of LSC on the brand:

According to HLL, Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna was not a

philanthropic activity, but a marketing program with a social benefit. HLL sought to grow the Lifebuoy brand in India by attracting those consumers who never used soap. In the process, the company sought to bring about a behavioral change by convincing people to use soaps more frequently, thus creating more users for its brand. The sales of Lifebuoy had increased by 20 percent in 200304.

 In 2005, the Lifebuoy brand grew by 10 percent and strong

growth of the brand was expected to continue in 2006. The program also generated goodwill for the company among customers, the government, and the media. By the end of 2005, the campaign had touched 86 million rural consumers and registered a 30 percent increase in their awareness of germs, 20 percent increase in understanding the association of germs with diseases and an increase in current user base by 33 percent compared to pre-campaign status in activity villages. User awareness has increased as per the before & after

tests conducted This model is also being replicated in other countries like Bangladesh.

Thank You